Four baby civets die

Four baby Indian civets died in Sonapur area under Sadar upazila of Moulvibazar in spite of receiving treatment for one month.

According to the wildlife management and nature conservation department, the babies were suffering from weakness as they could not drink breast milk. The first one died on April 26, two died on April 28, and the fourth died on Saturday.

Wildlife researcher Tania Khan said, “The babies were caught when they were too small, so they did not have the opportunity to breastfeed. They suffered injuries while being caught.”

According to wildlife management and nature conservation department, the cubs were caught by some children from a cemetery in Sadhugram area under Nazirbazar of Sylhet on March 29.

Abdul Matin, a resident of the village, informed the local administration about the matter, who informed the wildlife management and nature conservation department.

The department rescued the civets and handed them over to Tania.

"The babies were fed orsaline and Lactogen for the first two days. Then they were gradually fed bananas, milk and eggs,” Tania said.

Divisional forest officer of wildlife management and nature conservation in Sylhet Mihir Kumar Doe told this correspondent yesterday that the four baby civets died after one month of treatment.

“Civets are mainly carnivorous but also eat fruit. Their skin is brown coloured, and the neck and tail are white striped. They are usually three to three and a half feet in length. The tail is about 13 inches long and their weight is five to 10 kg. They live in holes they make in the ground,” Mihir said.

Its scientific name is Viverra Zibetha, called large Indian civet in English and baghdas, bham, bham biral, gandho gokul or khatas in Bangla, he added.